The Lord’s Preface

Doctrine and Covenants Section 1

Is winter over?

Wilford Woodruff

“I consider that the Doctrine and Covenants, our testament…

[it] contains a code of the most solemn, the most godlike proclamations ever made to the human family” (J.D., Vol. 22, p. 147).

Interesting Name

DOCTRINE

November 1,2 1831

D&C 67

4 And now I, the Lord, give unto you a testimony of the truth of these commandments which are lying before you.

5 Your eyes have been upon my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., and his language you have known, and his imperfections you have known; and you have sought in your hearts knowledge that you might express beyond his language; this you also know.

6 Now, seek ye out of the Book of Commandments, even the least that is among them, and appoint him that is the most wise among you;

7 Or, if there be any among you that shall make one like unto it, then ye are justified in saying that ye do not know that they are true;

8 But if ye cannot make one like unto it, ye are under condemnation if ye do not bear record that they are true.

9 For ye know that there is no unrighteousness in them, and that which is righteous cometh down from above, from the Father of lights.

Jeffrey Holland

Whatever else it is, the Doctrine and Covenants is a revelatory document, revelations abounding, a promise of prophetic utterance…

And why are these revelations given? To tear down the graven images of our time, to re-enthrone God as the Father to his children, reestablish those covenants linking heaven and earth…

To that end the dispensation and its doctrines and these compilations are dedicated. To that end the preface, the first section, is committed. Surely it is one of the great prefaces in the possession of mankind.

Purpose of these commandments

D&C 1: 17 Wherefore, I the Lord, knowing the calamity which should come upon the inhabitants of the earth, called upon my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., and spake unto him from heaven, and gave him commandments;

18 And also gave commandments to others, that they should proclaim these things unto the world; and all this that it might be fulfilled, which was written by the prophets

19 The weak things of the world shall come forth and break down the mighty and strong ones, that man should not counsel his fellow man, neither trust in the arm of flesh—

20 But that every man might speak in the name of God the Lord, even the Savior of the world;

21 That faith also might increase in the earth;22 That mine everlasting covenant might be established;23 That the fulness of my gospel might be proclaimed by the

weak and the simple unto the ends of the world, and before kings and rulers.

24 Behold, I am God and have spoken it; these commandments are of me

The Lord’s Warning

D&C 1:36And also the Lord shall have power over

his saints, and shall reign in their midst, and shall come down in judgment upon Idumea, or the world.

Warning?

Flavius JosephusAFTER the death of Isaac, his sons divided their habitations respectively; …

Esau departed from the city of Hebron, and left it to his brother, and dwelt in Seir, and ruled over Idumea.

He called the country by that name from himself, for he was named Adom; which appellation he got on the following occasion:

—One day returning from the toil of hunting very hungry, (it was when he was a child in age,) he lighted on his brother when he was getting ready lentile-pottage for his dinner, which was of a very red color; on which account he the more earnestly longed for it, and desired him to give him some of it to eat: [and he]… resigned up to him his birthright…

Whence it came, that, on account of the redness of this pottage, he was, in way of jest, by his contemporaries, called Adom, for the Hebrews call what is red Adom; and this was the name given to the country; but the Greeks gave it a more agreeable pronunciation, and named it Idumea.

Second part…

DOCTRINE

AND

COVENANTS

Question…

What “Covenants” do we find in the D&C we don’t

find anywhere else?